Tag: santa anita

Arabian Knight Favored at 3-1 from Post 12 for Breeders’ Cup Classic

After firing a five-furlong warning shot at Santa Anita Monday morning, Zedan Racing's 'TDN Rising Star' Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo) was installed as the 3-1 morning-line favorite while drawing post 12 at the Rood & Riddle Post-Position Draw for Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

The Bob Baffert-trained GI Pacific Classic hero and $2.3-million OBS April breezer will face 12 rivals in the $6-million centerpiece, including fellow sophomore and the rail-drawn GI Belmont S. and GI Travers S. hero Arcangelo (Arrogate), GI Whitney S. winner White Abarrio (Race Day) and G1 Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}).

All four of Baffert's Classic winners–Bayern (2014), American Pharaoh (2015), Arrogate (2016) and Authentic (2020)–accomplished the feat during their 3-year-old seasons.

“I know this is going to be a tough race, but if he brings his 'A' game, I don't really care who's running against us,” Baffert said.

Despite missing the last two days of training with a foot issue, trainer Jena Antonucci remains confident that Arcangelo is in good form for the Classic.

“He's rather annoyed with us right now, so yes,” she said at the draw.

“He had a warm hind foot and we pulled his shoe off. We'll be patient, always put the horse first and make sure he's 100 percent.”

From the rail out, the complete field for the Classic: Arcangelo (Arrogate), Zandon (Upstart), White Abarrio (Race Day), Missed the Cut (Quality Road), Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits), Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming), Clapton (Brethren), Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}), Senor Buscador (Mineshaft), Dreamlike (Gun Runner), Bright Future (Curlin), Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo) and Proxy (Tapit).

Breeders' Cup 40, to be held for the 11th time at Santa Anita, will celebrate the return of four winners–Caravel (Mizzen Mast) (Turf Sprint), Cody's Wish (Curlin) (Dirt Mile), Elite Power (Curlin) (Sprint) and Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) (F/M Sprint)–from the 2022 Championships at Keeneland. Twilight Gleaming (Ire) (National Defense {GB}), winner of the 2021 GII Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, was entered in the Turf Sprint.

Morning-line favorites for Saturday's nine Breeders' Cup events, in race order, as follows:

Cody's Wish (Curlin) (post three) (9/5) (Dirt Mile); G1 Sun Chariot S. winner Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) (post 6) (5-2) (Filly & Mare Turf); Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper) (post 1) (6/5) (Filly & Mare Sprint); Japanese-based G1 Yasuda Kinen winner Songline (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) (post 10) (5-2) (Mile); streaking GI Juddmonte Spinster S. heroine Idiomatic (Curlin) (post four) (5-2) (Distaff); G1 Juddmonte International S. winner Mostahdaf (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) (post nine) (5-2) (Turf); 'Rising Star' Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo) (post 12) (3-1) (Classic); G1 Nunthorpe S. winner Live In The Dream (Ire) (Prince of Lir {Ire}) (post five) (9-2) (Turf Sprint); and Elite Power (Curlin) (post eight) (9/5) (Sprint).

Morning-line favorites for the 'Future Stars' Friday card, in race order, as follows:

G2 Flying Childers S. winner Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) (post four) (3-1) (Juvenile Turf Sprint); the legendary Beholder's unbeaten GI Del Mar Debutante S. heroine and 'Rising Star' Tamara (Bolt d'Oro) (post seven) (4/5) (Juvenile Fillies); unbeaten GI Natalma S. heroine She Feels Pretty (Karakontie {Jpn}) (post 11) (4-1) (Juvenile Fillies Turf); GI Claiborne Breeders' Futurity winner and 'Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) (post 6) (7-2) (Juvenile); and the Aidan O'Brien-trained G2 Coventry S. winner and G1 Middle Park S. third-place finisher River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) (post two) (3-1) (Juvenile Turf).

Hosted by Britney Eurton and Nick Luck, the draw was held at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, California.

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‘She’s Been a Superstar For Us This Year’: Fortuna Out to Favour The Brave

ARCADIA, USA–Bar those who have raced recently in the US, the European horses arrived at Santa Anita on Sunday evening, with their trainers mostly following on over the next few days. One early bird at the track on Sunday morning was Donnacha O'Brien, who is entitled to want to soak up as much of the atmosphere as he can this week as he has brought a Group 1-winning juvenile to be his first runner at the Breeders' Cup.

Only Bob Baffert has accrued more prize-money earnings than Donnacha's father Aidan O'Brien in the 39 previous runnings of the Breeders' Cup, with the Irishman's 16 winners having contributed towards a haul of more than $30 million. Brother Joseph O'Brien, too, has his name on the board with one winner from five starters to date. That success, in the Breeders' Cup Mile also at Santa Anita back in 2019, came with Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}), whose success was followed up in the same race the next year by her half-brother Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}), trained by Aidan. 

What made those two victories all the more special was the fact that the siblings were bred by Aidan and Annemarie O'Brien under their Whisperview Trading banner, and now it is the turn of his Donnacha to attempt to secure another Breeders' Cup winner for his parents as breeders with Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio). More importantly, however, the filly will be carrying the hopes of a large number of American owners in the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday.

“We've been coming to the Breeders' Cup since as along as I can remember, and I've been lucky enough to ride at a few, but this is my first one as a trainer, so it's exciting. I haven't been to the Breeders' Cup in the last few years because I haven't had a runner, so it's nice to be back,” said O'Brien, the former dual champion jockey in Ireland who retired from race-riding in 2019

Porta Fortuna remains confined to barracks until being allowed on to the main track on Tuesday morning.

“She travelled well and is in good form, and seems to have settled in well,” he continued. “She's been a superstar for us this year. To win at Ascot was fantastic, but she had two wins before Ascot, so to still be going, and to have run in three Group 1s in a row, and against the boys as well, she's danced every dance and she's a very tough filly. We're very lucky to have her, she's been great for us.”

That she has. From her maiden win at the Curragh on April 16, Porta Fortuna went straight into Pattern company for her first run in the colours of her new team of owners to win the G3 Fillies' Sprint S. at Naas, enjoying the perfect tune up before her first spot of travelling to Ascot for the G3 Albany S. Come August, she was chasing home Bucanero Fuerte (Fr) to be second in the G1 Phoenix S. before taking third in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. Finally she secured her own Group 1 success on her return to Britain for the Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket. She steps up now for a tight, turning mile, the first time she has gone beyond seven furlongs. 

Her trainer reported, “She has taken every run very well. She's not a filly who needs a lot of work at home. She's not difficult to train, her races kind of bring her along.

“She is owned by Steve Weston, Barry Fowler, Dean Reeves and Medallion Thoroughbreds, as well, which is a big syndicate. They are all American, and from the moment they bought her this was the dream and it has just worked out incredibly well. It's great to be able to bring her over to the US for them.”

The success of Porta Fortuna has also prompted greater involvement in O'Brien's stable from the ownership group, who bought into the filly through agent Mark McStay.

He added, “They bought her after she won a maiden, and they have bought some yearlings for me this year.

“In Ireland there's a small pool of owners, but internationally there's obviously a big interest in racing. This isn't something we've done on purpose, we were just lucky enough to get involved with these guys and it's brilliant to have some success for them.”

The one question that remains is how Porta Fortuna will cope with a two-turn mile after the wide open expanses of the Curragh plains and Newmarket Heath.

“We won't be sure until we go and do it, so we'll see,” said O'Brien. “It's going to be a lot different for her. Every race she's had so far has been on a straight track but she trains round a left-handed bend every day at home, so she's well used to turning left. She's obviously going up in trip as well, but on tight tracks, a mile around here is going to be like seven in Europe, and she has stayed seven before. We're not sure until we try but I feel she should handle it.”

 

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One Last Dance for Consistent Onesto in Breeders’ Cup Turf

ARCADIA, USA–Whisper it, and a few people have been doing so since the huddle started growing at Clockers' Corner over the last few mornings, but Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) should not be overlooked in a potentially red-hot running of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on Saturday. 

On Monday morning his trainer Fabrice Chappet was one of the few to be found trackside just before sun up at Santa Anita. Though he is fielding his first runner at the Breeders' Cup, he is no stranger to American racing, having worked for a number of years for John Nerud, albeit on the other side of the country. Chappet also saddled Blue Panis (Fr) to be second in the GII Oak Tree Derby at the now-defunct Hollywood Park back in 2010.

A neat chestnut, on the small side compared to a number of Frankel's runners, Onesto is better travelled than many of his fellow competitors, even if that is not immediately apparent from this bare racing record. Born in Ireland at Coolmore, he was sent to Tattersalls in England as a yearling and, retained by his Kentucky-based breeder Diamond Creek Farm at 185,000gns, he was then exported to Florida, mid-pandemic, where he was prepared for the Ocala Spring breeze-up sale. 

Hubert Guy signed the ticket there at $535,000, and Onesto returned to Europe, this time to France, the fourth country in his young life, where he settled into Chappet's Chantilly stable.

Lightly raced but a winner at two, by the spring of his three-year-old season he landed a key Classic trial in the G2 Prix Greffuhle and though the luck of the draw did not go his way in the Prix du Jockey Club, he still managed fifth, before landing the biggest win of his career in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris. 

“Onesto has been very consistent and has always run good races except this year in the Irish Champion,” said Chappet. “He hasn't been lucky all his life, like in the French Derby, but he has always run well, including in the Japan Cup last year. He was seventh but again quite unlucky. So he really has been consistent except for some reason this year in Leopardstown, but then he came back nicely in the Arc.”

Third in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, less than two lengths off the winner Ace Impact (Fr), who has already been retired to stud, Onesto has his own stallion berth booked at France's historic Haras d'Etreham, which has been one of his owners for most of his racing career, along with a group which includes Jean-Etienne Dubois and Gerard-Augustin Normand.

Chappet continued, “He looks happy and he travelled well so I'm sure he's going to run a good race. We have to wait for the draw, and he's a horse you want to wait with. We saw what to do in the Arc and we saw what not to do in the Irish Champion this year, because he ran very well in that last year.”

On the horse's impending retirement to stud, he added, “This is what it's about. He's a four-year-old, and we have had two horses going to stud this year, as we had [G1 Prix Jean Prat winner] Good Guess as well, so for a boutique hotel like ours, 80 horses, I am very proud of that.”

Like most of the incoming European contingent, Onesto will be allowed out on to the track on Tuesday, but don't expect to see him scorching the turf. 

“We had to van him from Chantilly to Newmarket, and then he flew from there to Shannon, and then from Ireland to here. He'll trot tomorrow. It's been a long trip so we'll just go easy all week,” said his trainer.

For a seasoned world traveller, that should present no problem for Onesto, who has one last chance to star in the land of his breeder. And he would not be the first member of his family to feature prominently at the Breeders' Cup either. His Juddmonte-bred dam Onshore (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) is a daughter of Kalima (GB) (Kahyasi {Ire}), herself a full-sister to Hasili (GB) whose daughter Banks Hill (GB) (Danehill) won the Filly & Mare Turf in 2001, a feat followed four years later by her full-sister Intercontinental (GB).

 

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Pin Oak Offers Guarded Update on Geaux Rocket Ride’s Condition

Pin Oak Stud has tweeted an update on the condition of its Grade I winner Geaux Rocket Ride (Candy Ride {Arg}), who suffered an open condylar fracture with intersesmoidian ligament damage during a work at Santa Anita Saturday. He underwent surgery Sunday evening.

“Rocket is having an unexpected response to the surgery and isn't recovering as we hoped,” the tweet stated. “He appears to be in no pain and is eating. Our boy is still fighting hard, so we will keep fighting for him. Under Dr. Carpenter's recommendation, he is moving to another facility better equipped to handle his post-op recovery.”

Trained by Richard Mandella, Geaux Rocket Ride won the GI Haskell S. at Monmouth Park in July and was most recently a narrowly beaten second in the Sept. 2 GI Pacific Classic.

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